Franco writes
in a Washington Post op-ed that in the late '90s he was a
struggling actor living in Los Angeles. He was fired from a
coffee shop and golf course and couldn't find acting jobs.

He became desperate after his parents cut him off financially.

"Someone asked me if I was too good to work at McDonald’s,"
Franco writes. "Because I was following my acting dream
despite all the pressure not to, I was definitely
not too good to work at McDonald’s."

Franco says he began working in the drive-thru and practicing
foreign accents on customers.

Despite that fact that he had been a vegetarian before he
started working at McDonald's, he began eating the cheeseburgers
that were headed for the trash after sitting for more than seven
minutes.

"I hate to whistleblow,
but everyone ate straight from
the fry hopper. You’d walk by and snag a fry and pop it in your
mouth. So easy," he writes. "I also put tons of salt on the fries
because that’s how I like
them."

Franco says he still
enjoys McDonald's food.Reuters

Franco was eventually promoted to working behind the
counter.

He was able to leave his job at McDonald's after booking a Super
Bowl commercial with Pizza Hut. Since then, he's become one of
the most successful actors in the industry, starring in The
Interview, 127 Hours, and Spiderman.

But Franco says he still feels affection for the fast food
chain.

"I was treated fairly well at McDonald’s. If anything, they
cut me slack," Franco writes. "And, just like their food, the job
was more available there than anywhere else. When I was hungry
for work, they fed the need."

It's estimated that one in eight Americans have worked for
McDonald's at some point in their lives. The
brand employs more than 1.8 million people around the
world.